Life:

On March 7, 1875, the outstanding French composer Maurice Ravel was born in Siboon, a small town on the border of the Pyrenees Valley. My father was a French engineer with Swiss origin. He was employed in railway construction in Spain, where he met Marie Delaut, a girl from the Spanish Basque region, and they got married. Ravel was only a few months old when his family moved to Paris. Three years later, he added his younger brother Edward. His father loved music and wanted to train his two sons to become musicians. As a result, only Morris took this path.

He started learning piano at the age of seven and made rapid progress. At the age of fourteen, he was admitted to the piano preparatory course of the Paris Conservatoire. Two years later, he was promoted to the piano class of Teacher Berio and studied harmony with Pessar. In the class, he met Ricardo Vigne, a Spanish student of the same age as him. He was deeply envious of Vigne's excellent piano playing skills and practiced feverishly in an effort to catch up. However, because he was often dominated by laziness, This enthusiasm failed to produce the expected results. Since then, Vigne has become his lifelong friend and always plays his new works enthusiastically. At this time, Ravel was very enthusiastic about composing. The two earliest piano pieces he wrote, "Ancient Minuet" and "Habanera" (1895), the first piece in "Views of a Hundred Hears", already showed his talent. personality. In 1897, he learned counterpoint from Gaidarz and composition from Fauret.

Not long after he entered the conservatory, Ravel was influenced by symbolist poetry and loved Baudelaire. The poetry of Mallarmé and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The splendid orchestral works of Rimsky-Korsakov and the oriental music performed by the Javanese Gamelan band, which were performed at the International Exposition held in Paris in 1889, deeply attracted the 14- or 15-year-old music school student. Later, he came into contact with the colorful harmonies of French composer Chabriel and the novel and bizarre musical ideas and music creation of Eric Satie. In his own compositions, he also began to explore some new musical languages ??and expression methods, which gave him a "bad reputation" in the conservative music academy. Pessar was a good teacher who always encouraged students' creativity. Fauré also fully recognized Ravel's extraordinary creative talents. Even these two enlightened teachers felt that his musical ideas were too unbridled and that he thought The harmony techniques used are also too novel.

Ravel always worked tirelessly to participate in the annual competition held by the Conservatory of Music. In 1901, he decided to enter the competition for the Prix de Rome. The Prix de Rome is a prize awarded by the French government for paintings. It is designed for outstanding talents in the fields of sculpture, printmaking, architecture and music. Those who pass the exam and win the Grand Prix of Rome can go to the Medici Manor in Rome to study for three years. Since the establishment of the Music Prize in 1803, musicians such as Berlioz, Guhua, Bizet, and Debussy have all enjoyed this treatment. But in this year's competition, Ravel only finished second. Teacher Fulai was convinced that he could win the grand prize and advised him to try again the next year. Surprisingly, he failed again the next year. Fauret was shocked when he was defeated again in 1903, and protested in vain along with several other famous musicians who had no doubts about Ravel's talent. By 1905, Ravel was almost over the age limit for competition for the Prix de Rome and decided to give it another try. At this time, he had already published works such as "Ancient Minuet", "Pavan Dance Written in Memory of a Princess who Died in infancy", and "The Play of Water". During the years when he was preparing for the Rome Prize, he composed "String Quartet in F Major" and "Sonata". He was already a young composer famous all over the country and even on the European continent. However, he failed again and was eliminated in the preliminaries. For this reason, progressive musicians all over France expressed their opposition, and newspapers and intellectual circles also ignored him. Romain Rolland wrote, "I am not a friend of Ravel. It can even be said that I personally do not like Ravel's elusive and overly refined art. But justice drives me to say that Ravel is not only Just a promising student, he is already one of the most outstanding young masters of our country's music school.

...Ravel entered the competition not as a student but as a proven composer. I admire those composers who dare to judge him, but who will judge them?" This incident caused a social turmoil, forcing the director of the conservatory, Théol Dubois, to resign, and Fauré succeeded him. .

At the beginning of the 20th century, the artistic life in Paris was very active, and there were many young artists who were dissatisfied with reality in the Montmatt and Laga districts. Ravel also joined a group of artists who opposed conservative forces. Artists pursuing unconventionality became friends. They called themselves the "Society of Troublemakers" and included composers Florent Schmidt, Maurice Draghi, André Caplet, Calvo Corresi and the Spanish Composer De Faia, pianist Riccardo Vigne, and later Stravinsky as well as some painters, writers, and critics often discussed art, music, and music in the studio of painter Sold. There were long and serious discussions on literature and politics, and they played the piano and made noise all night, which disturbed the surrounding neighbors. Soon they moved to the secluded house of Delage for the gathering, to which Ravel's piano suite "Mirror" was dedicated. A member of this association. In 1908, his "Spanish Rhapsody" premiered at the concert, and all the "troublemakers" came out to support it, fearing that this work would not receive fair treatment. His opinions are far less intense than those of other members of this association. He is always gentle and gentle, and is known as "an authentic Baudelaire-style young man." "

Debussy's opera "Pelleas et Meysandre" was performed in Paris in 1902, which deeply moved Ravel. At this time, the two composers met for the first time. In 1903, Ravel wrote three songs with orchestral accompaniment, which shows the influence of Debussy on him. Some critics consider him to be Debussy's loyal successor. Indeed, they accepted similar literary and artistic trends. They also pursued colorful musical effects, but judging from Ravel's subsequent development, the two were inconsistent in aesthetics. Some people even said that his "Water Scene" was inspired by Debius. He protested against the influence of Western countries.

The period after 1905 was his main creative period, which produced the "Mother Goose" suite, "Ghost of the Night", some songs and the comic opera "The Spanish Time" in 1909. , the Ballets Russes became popular in Paris, and Ravel was deeply impressed. He immediately took the work to his manager Diaghilev and accepted a task: to write a novel based on the Greek myth "Daphne and Chloe". This is a ballet. In order to write this exquisite score, he spent astonishing efforts. It took him a year to write the last Bacchanalia. The premiere of his next work "Elegant and Sad Waltz" was not completed. Afterwards, at the request of the dancer Trukhanova, he compiled it into a ballet "Adelaide or the Language of Flowers" with a plot similar to "La Traviata". This success prompted him to turn it into a sensation. The "Mother Goose" suite was composed as a ballet based on the story of Sleeping Beauty.

While writing for the Ballets Russes, Ravel met Stravinsky in 1913. In the summer of that year, they lived together in Clarens on the shores of Lake Geneva. The two collaborated on the rearrangement of Mussorgsky's "Hovanshina". At that time, Stravinsky was writing "The Rite of Spring" and watched it. This score gave Ravel the same shock as watching "Pelleas et Mélisande". He was also exposed to Schoenberg's music in Switzerland, which all influenced him. This was reflected in the "Three Poems of Mallarmé" he wrote this year.

The First World War also affected the musician. He joined the army and served as a truck driver. . The war was a terrible experience for him. He gradually became disgusted with the bloodthirsty imperialism. He felt that it was meaningless for the German and French people to get involved in this war. Therefore, he ignored the accusations of public opinion and refused to sign in support of an agenda. The death of his mother in 1917, which prevented the performance of German music in France, plunged him into a severe depression, his health deteriorated rapidly, and he retired from playing in the summer of that year.

The impact of the war on him did not disappear long after the armistice. He suffered from insomnia, was depressed from time to time, and wrote very little. "The Tomb of Cooperan", a memorial to friends who died in the war, took two years to complete. In order to change his environment and regain his spirit, he moved to the countryside and started writing the ballet music "Grand Waltz" that Diaghilev had commissioned him to write a few years ago. After the work was completed and premiered in concert to great success, Diagile rejected it as unsuitable for performance. Ravel was furious and the two broke off their relationship. At this time, he also spent a lot of time traveling and performing, visiting almost all countries in Europe and the United States, conducting and performing his own works. Later, he found a small villa in the picturesque village of Montvlamore, not far from Paris, where he concentrated on composing music and lived a quiet and ordinary life. He composed the operetta-ballet "Children and Magic", "Violin Sonata", violin music "Gypsy Rhapsody", "Bolero" and two piano concertos.

In 1932, he was involved in a car accident and suffered a head injury. Soon, signs of hemiplegia appeared. I tried to take a vacation for treatment and traveled to Spain and Milogo, but there was still no significant improvement and I have since lost my ability to work. Brain surgery on December 19, 1937 failed, and he died in the hospital in the early morning of the 28th. He died at the age of sixty-two.

Ravel’s life and creation were at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and between the two world wars. He held his own views on art. He said: "Strictly speaking, I am not a 'modern composer,' because my music is far from a 'revolution,' but just an 'evolution.' Although I have always been open-minded and open-minded to new trends in music. (I have a blues movement in one of my violin sonatas), but I have never tried to abandon the accepted rules of harmonic composition. On the contrary, I often draw inspiration widely from a number of masters (I draw inspiration from a number of masters). (I have never stopped studying Mozart), my music is mostly based on the tradition of the past era, and is a natural result of it. I am not good at writing excessive harmonies and messy counterpoint. 'Modern composer', because I have never been a slave to any one style of composition, and I have never been aligned with any particular school of music."

He valued the role of melody and once told his students - -The famous British composer Vaughan Williams said: "In all living music, there is an implicit melody outline." The modes and harmonies he uses are novel and unique. He often uses natural modes, pentatonic scales, unresolved seventh and ninth chords, etc. However, he is always based on traditional harmony and never goes too far into the realm of atonality. Far. The rhythms he uses are largely restricted by dance music. He prefers dance music genres, such as the French minuet, pavan, and rigorton, and the Spanish malagagna, habanera, bolero, etc. Ravel handles these dances with elegance, clarity and beauty. It has the characteristics of French music. Ravel is a recognized orchestral master who created a unique orchestral orchestration method that fully utilizes the performance capabilities of each instrument to create exceptionally exquisite, gorgeous and colorful effects. His works have a clear structure and clear texture, and the overall style tends to be pure and graceful and full of humor in classical music. The most important creative characteristic of Ravel is his pursuit of technical perfection. Although he is highly skilled, he still treats every work with repeated deliberation and careful craftsmanship, and will never give up until it reaches extreme perfection. He once said to his biographer Manuel: "My goal is technical perfection, because I know for sure that this goal can never be achieved, so I ask myself to keep getting closer to it." Because of Ravel's habit, Stravinsky once jokingly called him an "exquisite Swiss watchmaker."

Ravel was also an excellent teacher, but he only taught a few private students who interested him. During his own study period, he often used the words of Massenet (French composer, 1842-1912) as his motto: "In order to master your own techniques, you must study the techniques of others"; when he taught students, he often gave young composers a The advice is: “Find a blueprint and copy it. If you don’t have anything to say, it’s better to copy it.

When the body has something to say, you will naturally not copy it. At that time, your personality will be most obvious. "He also wrote a small number of very characteristic articles, and always fully affirmed the works of contemporary composers; he also actively supported talented young people.

In general, La La Will's life circle is narrow, and his artistic world is very limited. Looking at his works, the subject matter is relatively narrow. The content of his works is rarely directly derived from the social life at that time, but mostly depicts and expresses fairy tales, legends, etc. of the scenery. , the music lacks passionate feelings for life. This reflects the early psychological state of some intellectuals who tried to break away from social reality when the social contradictions of capitalism became increasingly acute at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. , Ravel's music was influenced by the Impressionist trend of thought; but from the perspective of subsequent development, he gradually got rid of the constraints of Impressionist aesthetic ideas and wrote some clear, vivid images, bright tones, and many artistic achievements. He created works that inspired and influenced future generations. His music is based on French music culture, and he has many innovations in giving full play to the color characteristics of orchestral music. Therefore, Ravel has made great achievements in French music.

His representative works include the opera "Daphne and Chloe", the ballet "Mother Goose", the violin piece "Gypsy" and the orchestral piece "Bolero". He adapted Mussorgsky's solo piano piece "Pictures at an Exhibition" into an orchestral suite of the same name, making the piece widely popular.

1. Gypsy Girl, Matador, "Bolero". In 1928, the Spanish ballerina Ida Rubinstein invited Ravel (1875-1937) to write a dance music for her. Initially, Ravel was unwilling to compose a new work for this purpose, but he agreed to use the Spanish composer. Several piano pieces by Albéniz (1860-1909) were adapted for orchestra. Later, Ravel learned that the orchestration rights for Albéniz's works belonged to Fernandez Albos (1863-1939), who had become a dancer. Argentina adapted Albéniz's work into a dance suite, so Ravel had to create a new orchestral piece.

He had an orchestration idea brewing in his mind to write this work. A band etude. The whole song is a huge "crescendo", in which two 17-bar melody played by various instruments are repeated with overwhelming force on the background of the endless three-beat rhythm of the snare drum. Before the end, the music suddenly slipped into the key of E major (melody major), creating a unique effect that was completely incompatible with the simple technique. Ravel's unique piece is the famous "Bolero". "Lo" was choreographed by Nijinska and premiered in Paris on November 22, 1928. The scene was in a smoky Spanish hotel. Rubinstein was dressed as a gypsy girl, with a comb in her hair and a beard. scarf, dancing on the stage, and the audience cheered around her. The dance became more and more enthusiastic, arousing the enthusiasm of the onlookers. Finally, they grabbed her and lifted her high to their own. On the head.

After "Boleiro" was performed in Paris, it attracted the attention of many dancers and choreographers. The Irish dancer Dolin (1904-) used it as his solo dance repertoire and performed it continuously for many years; the Russian dancer Lifar (1905-) performed "Bolero", although it was still treated as a Spanish theme, but Avoid traditional Spanish dances. Because of its fixed melody and rhythm, Ravel's piece has little in common with the real Bolero. The stage design has a white arcade and a blood-red sky. Lifar is dressed as a bullfighter, who has just returned from the bullring in victory, and teases a woman who admires him with his funny posture. His enemy appeared before him and snatched the woman away. The matador was so disillusioned that he fell to the ground in a daze and was seriously injured. The festive crowd continued their carnival as if nothing had happened. The stage gradually fills up, and the band's final "crescendo" is accompanied by the matador's death.

2. Children's Suite "Mother Goose" French composer Ravel's "Mother Goose" suite was originally a piano suite for four hands. It is a veritable children's suite - using children's themes and for Suites composed by children for children to perform. Using children's themes - the content is based on the fairy tales of French writers Bellot (1628-1703), Madame Aulnoy (about 1650-1705) and Madame Beaumont (1711-1780); created for children - this suite was composed by Ravi in ??1909 He composed it for the two children of his good friend Gotebsky and dedicated this work to them; for children to perform - in April 1910, this suite was performed at a concert of the Paris Independent Music Society At the first performance, six-year-old Vergere and ten-year-old Rami played the piano for four hands. "Mother Goose" is an authentic children's suite, it seems that the only difference is that the composer is not a child. But Ravel told us: "I wrote this suite to evoke the poetry of childhood, so the technique must be simple, and all superficial effects have to be discarded." It can be seen that the composer also created with a childlike heart. .

In 1911, Ravel adapted "Mother Goose" into an orchestral suite. Later, he added two more movements, changed the order of each movement, and used intermezzos to connect them, forming a dance drama. music. The dance drama was written by Ravel based on the story of Mother Goose by Bellot and others, and choreographed by Jeanne Hugart. It premiered in Paris in January 1912. This is a children's dance drama with a unique taste. Ravel specially designed a small stage to perform the fairy tale of Princess Florina's Dream, which looks extremely small, exquisite and childish. Two black boys wearing yellow turbans served as curtain callers and scene changers. The story is based on the story of Sleeping Beauty, a dance at the spinning wheel, in which the princess dances in the garden while her nurse sits by the spinning wheel. The princess fell on the spinning wheel, and the spindle stung her waist. When she was possessed by the Sandman and fell asleep on the couch, the court officials gathered around her and danced the Pavan Dance of the Sleeping Beauty in the Forest. What follows is a series of dreams: accompanied by a slow waltz, a dialogue begins between Beauty and the Beast, and later the Beast transforms into a beautiful prince.

Two black children changed the scenery to the music of the intermezzo. The next dream is of Little Thumb and his little brothers walking through the woods, dropping crumbs as guides on their way home. But while the children were asleep, the bird ate up all the crumbs on the road... The scene below is of a palace furnished with eighteenth-century Chinese antiques, with the Pagoda Queen (the ugly girl) and her lover, the Green Snake. Pentatonic jingles and gongs accompany the dance with an oriental flavour. The prince appears and finds Princess Florina sleeping in the fairy garden. He kissed her and the princess woke up. When the "Mother Goose" dance drama was performed in Britain and the United States, the two movements and intermezzo that Ravel wrote for the dance drama music were often deleted, and the layout of the five movements of the "Mother Goose" suite was completely followed: Pavan Dance - Magic Garden - Little Thumb - The Sleeping Princess - Beauty and the Beast. It plays out the adventures of a little girl in her dream, with her as the protagonist in every movement.